Cops Descend on Bungie in Halo Rifle Scare

Yes, seriously

It could have been one of the most horrifying events ever to befall the games industry - a man with a huge assault rifle was seen near the Bungie studios, prompting police (and even a SWAT team) to be called in. As it turned out, it was not a crazed shooter so much as it was a Bungie employee carrying a Halo weapon replica.

Police were called in after the weapon was spotted and mistaken for an AK-47 in the company's Kirkland, Washington (USA) neighbourhood at around 4:20pm on Wednesday afternoon.

As it happened, Kotaku's Stephen Totilo was on site. He was told by Bungie's community director, Brian Jarrard, that a SWAT team was called in but never entered the premises. They told Bungie to be more discreet when transporting weapons replicas in the future. As it happens, Bungie could have called us and we could have told them that. Bungie could have called the home for Stupid People who Walk into Walls and Eat Rocks and they could have told Bungie that.

The weapon was a replica of a UNSC sniper rifle used for the live action Halo shorts from Neill Blomkamp (he's famous for making District 9 now). Frankly, if you saw someone carrying one of those big b@stards and couldn't work out that its NOT REAL, you would be bloody terrified.